Gotengo

I can’t remember the last time that I felt two toys were so made for one another that I thought they shouldn’t even be sold separately. But that’s the case with M1’s Manda and Gotengo. I just don’t see any reason to have one and not the other. But they are sold separately (available from HobbyLink Japan) so they get two different reviews.

I guess if you had to pick just one, the likely choice would be the Manda, mostly because there’s a more well established pedigree of vinyl kaiju rather than vinyl vehicles. Although it would come at a much greater cost, some might opt to get a die-cast rendition of the Gotengo, such as the superlative Shin Seiki Gokin from Aoshima. But at nearly a quarter of the price, I’ll take the vinyl, thank you very much.

Actually, I think I’d like the vinyl more than the diecast. Why? Well, this vehicle is a submarine and with no metal content, I’d have no qualms at all about playing with this thing in the tub!

This toy is about 13″ long and has a rather dull paint job. I don’t mean that in a bad way at all though. In fact, I rather like it. It’s a nice change of pace for M1 and contrasts beautifully with the elaborate paint on the Manda.

If anything, I guess I would prefer that the “saw blades” at the front of the ship were painted like metal the way the drill is. As it is, they were just left in the crimson and gray of the upper and lower portions of the ship.

One thing that is pretty neat is that the turrets can actually rotate! It would have pretty easy for them to just leave them in a fixed pose and with this being such a simply toy, I’m not sure anyone would have cared. I know I wouldn’t have. But since the feature is included, I do think it’s neat.

Of course, since that is the only thing this does, I got nothing else to say about it, other than you can get yours at HobbyLink Japan.